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Positivism and Post-Positivism[Empiricisim and Rationalism are foundationationalist epistemologies, i.e. both hold that we can only claim something as knowledge is something if we established it on a secure foundation. (Philips and Burbles, pp. 5-6). For Rationalists, represented by Descartes, the ultimate foundation is discovered through one's rational faculties. For Empiricists, knowledge is built up from the raw material of experience.] In time, Locke's empiricism led to two key points:
(Philips and Burbles, p. 7) From this first point, we can trace the development of many of Montessori's ideas about child development. This point is taken up in discussion of early educational theory. Many of her early ideas about scientific pedagogy derive from the second point. Johann Friedric Herbart (1776-1841) inspired early Italian pedagogical positivists, including Nicola Fornelli (1843-1915) and Luigi Credaro (1860-1939). As a teacher and student of philosophy in Switzerland, Bremen and Göttingen, he conducted observations and experiments to collect both theoretical and practical material for his work. (Herbart, 1893, p. 47). Herbart also inspired Herbert Spencer. "[In the early 1890s], the most famous philosopher followed in Italy was Spencer... and with him many other positivists and evolutionists, both foreigners and fellow citizens." (Croce, Primi saggi, pp. 8-9). Spencer originator of term "evolution". Ardigò/Spencer evolution. Spencer and Ardigò can be contrasted with Comte. Knowledge is warranted in terms of experience"...To make a claim for which no evidence (in particular, no observational evidence) is available, is (in the eyes of an empiricist) to speculate..." [tie this to idea of "speculative positivist", e.g. Spencer, Ardigò] (Philips and Burbles, p. 7) "Professor Enrico Morselli, favorably known in Italy by his works, sociological, biological and anthropological... is a faithful follower of Spencer." (Fiamingo, 1895, p. 351) In Pedagogical Anthropology, Montessori criticized Ardigò as a "speculative positivist" (this term was also applied to Spencer) as opposed to Morselli who used experiments to support his arguments. However, in The Advanced Montessori Method (Spontaneous Activity), Montessori uses a quote from Ardigò: "'The art of tuition,' says Ardigò, 'consists mainly of this: to know up to what point and in what manner one can maintain the interest of pupils. The most skilful teachers are those who never fatigue one fraction of the pupil's brain, but act in such a manner that his attention, turning now here, now there, may rest itself and, gaining strength, return to the principal argument of the discourse with renewed vigor.'" (p. 46) Montessori doesn't mention Spencer, who suffered a precipitous decline in popularity in his lifetime. Wundt fell in popularity in the same way. Dewey fails to mention either Spencer or Wundt in writing about influences on his work. Montessori further backs away from her initial stance in (The Discover of the Child?) "...The theories of positivism arrive at the self-same goals as idealism, those of poetry, philosophy and art." (Montessori, 1913, p. 476) [Not only idealists but also positivists drew inspiration from Kant. An example of this is Johann Friedric Herbart (1776-1841). Herbart sought to establish Kant's doctrine on psychological grounds (Cushman, 1911, p. 332). He upheld the principle of non-contradiction. For him, apparent contradictions resulted from inadequate understanding, not the nature of reality. (Copleston, p. 250).] "At the downfall of Napolean the age gave up the hope of reconstructing the world either politically or philosophically. The new spirit was scientific and positive. It tried to accept the world as it found it, and to explain it mechanically so far as it could be done. Things are not the creation of thought, and thought cannot change the reality of things. We must observe and experiment, since we cannot construct. We must restore the boundaries of Kant. Yet [Herbart was] true to the spirit that inspired German idealism, for [he] could not develop [his] philosophy of education, psychology, or art except upon a metaphysical background. Metaphysics was necessary. It was as necessary a foundation to the Germans as ethics to the Greeks and psychology to the English." (Cushman, 1911, pp. 331-332) "Among the contemporary opponents of post-Kantian idealism... Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841)" is widely known. "While in Switzerland (1797-1800) he had known Pestalozzi, and he took a great interest in and wrote on educational subjects." (Copleston, 2003, p. 249) "[Herbart] contended... that it is impossible to deduce the theory of the world from a single principle. An all-inclusive principle may be the conclusion, but not the premise, of a philosophy. Thus his thought moved in exactly the opposite direction from the monism of the Idealists..." (Cushman, p. 332) [Herbart also inspired the historical materialist Labriola.] Positivism was formalized and named by French thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857). Montessori came of age intellectually at the end of the nineteenth century. Recent rapid progress in technology and the natural sciences were attributed to the shift from speculative thought to experimentation and observation as the primary means of discovery. This view was formalized by French thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857) in a philosophy he called Positivism. Academics were using positivist thinking to create the human sciences, including psychology, anthropology and sociology (Comte himself coined the term "sociologie", the French word for sociology). [Herbart's "The General Principles of the Science of Education" was published in German in 1806 as Allgemeine Pädagogik. According to Herbart, "the plan of the Pädagogik was, after practical use, thought over carefully in all its details many years before pen was put to paper towards the end of the year 1805." (Herbart, 1893, p. 47)] ["The pedagogical Italian positivism began with Nicola Fornelli [1843-1915] and his interest in Johann Friedrich Herbart. Luigi Credaro [1860-1939] contributed to making Herbart known, whereas Saverio de Dominicis [1846-1930] attempted at the rigid adaptation of the theory of evolution." (Garin and Pinton, 2007, p. 981). Also mentioned is positivist Pietro Siciliani (1832-1885) and anti-positivist critic ("with Benedetto Croce one of the greatest exponents of 'idealism'"), Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944). (Garin and Pinton, 2007, p. 981) "In the second half of the nineteenth century, in connection with the general trend of physical, biological and social science, the postivist current prevailed also in Italian pedagogics. The principle representatives were: Edoardo Fusco (Trani, 1824, Naples, 1872); Pietro Sciliani (Galatina, 1835, Florence, 1885), author of... Science in Education According to the Principles of Modern Sociology; Andrea Angiulli (Castellana, 1837, Naples, 1890), author of Philosophy and the School, Pedagogics, the State and the Family, Pedagogics and Positive Philosophy; Aristide Gabelli (Belluno, 1830, Padua, 1891), compiler of the valuable Instructions... [and] author of Man and the Moral Sciences and Education in Italy; Nicola Fornelli (Bitonto, 1843, Naples, 1915), author of Public Teaching of To-day, in which he shows that teaching is the right and function of the State and must be secular but not anti-religious; Pedagogics and Classical Teaching, affirming that classical studies constitute the basis of national education; Adaptation in Education, Studies from Herbart; F. S. De Dominicis (Buonalbergo, 1845, still living), author of the Comparative Science of Education; G. A. Colozza (Frosolone, 1857,still living), author of The Place of the Play in Psychology and Pedagogy, Inhibition, Imagination in Science; Meditation, Mathematics in Educational Work, Studies on Rousseau and Education and the Sentiment of Honour, in which he develops some principles of Locke and modern English pedagogy. The leader of the school of modern pedagogic positivism is Robert Ardigò (Casteldidone, 1828, Mantua, 1920). In addition to may philosophical works he wrote The Science of Education, 1893. Among those who follow the lines laid down by him are: Giovanni Marchesini (1868, still living), author of the Positive Doctrine of Ideality, Systematic Course of Pedagogics, Moral Education; Giuseppe Tarozzi (1866, still living), Ludovico Limentani and others. Cesare Collucci, Sante Desanctis, G. C. Ferrari, G. Montesano and G Ferreri are experts in normal and amended pedagogic psychology. The spiritualistic direction tempered by the results of modern psychology is followed by Giovanni Vidari (1871, still living) and Giovanni Calò (1882, still living), both authors of a Treatise on Pedagogics, and many essays. Luigi Credaro (1860, still living), Professor of the University of Rome, Senator Governor of the Trentino, during the four years in which he was Minister of Education, obtained Parliamentary sanction for many fundamental laws promoting the growth of the elementary schools (taking the administration from the communes and entrusting it to a special provincial autonomous body), raising the salaries, and improving the school accomodation. He has published a volume on The Pedagogics of Herbart, and a Pedagogical Encyclopedia, with Marinazzoli. He is the editor of the Rivista pedagogica (Pedagogic Review)." (Watson, 1921, p. 898) [Major positivists influencing Italian thought were Spencer and Ardigò. Contrast with earlier Comte, later Logical Positivists.] [see Herbert Spencer: Obstacles to Objectivity] [Was Montessori a positivist? If so, did she change her mind about positivism? If so, when? Spencer said he wasn't a positivist. Marx said he wasn't a Marxist. Hard to catergorize thinkers this way. Mario said she was a positivist, but she clearly changed her stance with regard to the role of speculation and attempts to model scientific pedagogy after medicine.] "...The 'Rivista di filosofia scientifica' [from 1881 to 1891] under the editorship of the psychiatrist Enrico Morselli... remained predominantly positivistic, though often it gave manifestations of naturalism and materialism. An example of this was Giuseppe Sergi... A pure materialist was Cesare Lombroso who contributed to the diffusion of the ideas of Jacob Moleschott..." (Garin and Pinton, 2007, p. 990). "With Darwinism in its applied or 'social' form, we come to the central point of intellectual conflict. Some of Darwin's earliest supporters had been followers of August Comte, and the second of the high priests of positivism, Herbert Spencer, had early rallied to Darwinism, sensing its possibilities as support for his own position." (Hughes, 1977, p. 36) Montessori on materialism and mechanism: When St. Francis of Assisi saw his Lord in a vision, and received from the Divine lips the command—"Francis, rebuild my Church!"—he believed that the Master spoke of the little church within which he knelt at that moment. And he immediately set about the task, carrying upon his shoulders the stones with which he meant to rebuild the fallen walls... Like St. Francis, we have believed that by carrying the hard and barren stones of the experimental laboratory to the old and crumbling walls of the school, we might rebuild it. We have looked upon the aids offered by the materialistic and mechanical sciences with the same hopefulness with which St. Francis looked upon the squares of granite, which he must carry upon his shoulders. (Montessori, 1912, pp. 6-7) [How does this relate to the discussion on page 17 of the "national desk?"] "To describe the dominant tendency in late nineteenth-century thought as materialism was obviously a crude simplification. Few serious thinkers of any period have been true materialists... 'Mechanism,' on the other hand, was a rather more accurate characterization: it suggested the prestige of explanations drawn from the Newtonian physical universe and in particular from the recently developed field of electricity. Similarly the term 'naturalism' evoked the biological explanations that had come increasingly into vogue as the nineteenth century advanced. This had been notably the case since the triumph of Darwinism in the 1860's." "With Darwinism in its applied or 'social' form, we come to the central point of intellectual conflict. Some of Darwin's earliest supporters had been followers of August Comte, and the second of the high priests of positivism, Herbert Spencer, had early rallied to Darwinism, sensing its possibilities as support for his own position." (Hughes, 1977, p. 36) [Like Spencer, Sergi was an evolutionist (Foschi, 2008, p. 240)] "It was my former teacher, Giuseppe Sergi, who, as early as 1886, defended with the ardor of a prophet the new scientific principle of studying the pupils in our schools by methods prescribed by anthropology." (Montessori, 1896, p. 14)] [It might help to start by trying to categorize Montessori's work. Positivist? Spencer didn't consider himself a positivist as defined by Comte. Montessori considered Spencer a positivist but rejected work such as his and Ardigò's. Yet, in a 1961 lecture, Mario said that his mother was a positivist.] During this period, a distinction was made between "speculative positivists" such as Spencer and Ardigò--philosophers who did not conduct experiments or collect empirical data[refs?]--and positivists such as Morselli [who else?] who did. According to Italian philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce, in the 1890's and early 1900's, "hardly anyone dared to admit he was engaged in philosophical investigations and thought; everyone boasted instead of studying science and working as a scientist." (Croce 1963, cited in Nye 1976, pp. 336-337). Montessori was no exception: "He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every preconception. It is clear then that if we wish to make use of a method of experimental psychology, the first thing necessary is to renounce all former creeds and to proceed by means of the method in the search for truth." (Montesori, 1912, p. 29). However, in this same text, Montessori goes on to say that her interest in developing scientific pedagogy led her to register as a student of philosophy at the University of Rome in order "to undertake the study of normal pedagogy and of the principles upon which it is based." (Montessori, 1912, p. 33). As we will see, Montessori made use of many of the principles she studied in developing her own learning environments. How did Montessori reconcile the ideas of experiments free of all preconceptions, with her decision to devote herself to studying the educational theories of the past? Montessori's approach becomes clearer when we consider the following passage from Pedagogical Anthropology: "While the experimental sciences, by collecting and recording separate phenomena, were gradually preparing, throughout the nineteenth century, a great mass of analytical material, chosen blindly and without form, they apparently engendered a new trend of thought positively hostile to philosophy: the odium antiphilosophicum, as Morselli calls it. And conversely, the speculative positivism of Ardigò remained throughout its development a stranger to the immediate sources of experimental research, and adhered strictly to the field of pure philosophy. It remained for Morselli to perceive that the scientific material prepared by experimental science was in reality philosophical material, for which it was only necessary to prepare instruments and means in order to systematize it and lead it into the proper channels for the construction of a scientific philosophy." "Throughout the whole period of his intellectual activity, Morselli sought to unite experimental science and philosophy, by taking his content from the former and his form from the latter." (Montessori, 1913, p. 21). In Spontaneous Activity, Montessori quotes Ardigò to support her view: "'The art of tuition,' says Ardigò, 'consists mainly of this: to know up to what point and in what manner one can maintain the interest of pupils. The most skilful teachers are those who never fatigue one fraction of the pupil's brain, but act in such a manner that his attention, turning now here, now there, may rest itself and, gaining strength, return to the principal argument of the discourse with renewed vigor.'" (Montessori, 1917, p. 46). [Spencer and Ardigò were philosophers who used examples and analogies from science to put forward their ideas. Morselli, Lombroso, Giovanni and Sergi were scientists.] [Spencer and Ardigò both had differences with Comte. Spencer did not believe in Comte's hierarchy of the sciences (the idea that there is a hierarchy starting with math, then physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology), or Comte's three phases of intellectual progress (theological, metaphysical, positive). Unlike Comte, Ardigò believed thought more than matter. Ardigò took the idea of evolutionary development from Spencer. (Bellamy, 1987, p. 9)] "The use of the term 'positive' had the function of indicating that the author had in mind not the loose interpretation of science whereby any systematic accumulation of knowledge can be described as a scientific activity, but the more specialized interpretation whereby a subject can only be termed scientific if it is based upon methods similar to those of the natural sciences." (Birch, 2001, p. 225) "The spirit of positivism is essentially the spirit of the Enlightment, and can be summarized as rational, secular, scientific, optimistic, progressive, liberal and associated with the belief in the inevitability of progress that developed in the eighteenth century and characterized much European thought until it was shattered by the events of 1914." (Birch, 2001, p. 225) [Interesting contrast between the anti-Catholic philosopher Ardigò and Catholic scientist Montessori] [Mario called his mother a positivist in 1961 lecture, "Dr. Montessori and the Child" (Montessori, Mario, 1984)] According to Montessori then, scientific pedagogy ought to be developed through two related and necessary activities: the systematic collection of data through objective, unbiased experiments and observations, and the organization of experiments and observations through theoretical work. Since there were no Morsellis in the history of educational study, Montessori could not find guidance on experimental methods and educational philosophy from the same source. In late nineteenth century Italy, anthropology (as opposed to psychology in Great Britain and the United States). For her theoretical framework, the only resource available was educational theory based on speculation or anecdotal evidence. One consequence of this is that Montessori's theoretical framework closely resembles the educational principles of theoreticians such as Herbert Spencer, a thinker who was considered by some as the quintessential speculative positivist (Small, 1897). "[In the early 1890s], the most famous philosopher followed in Italy was Spencer... and with him many other positivists and evolutionists, both foreigners and fellow citizens." (Croce, Primi saggi, pp. 8-9). "Professor Enrico Morselli, favorably known in Italy by his works, sociological, biological and anthropological... is a faithful follower of Spencer." (Fiamingo, 1895, p. 351) Like Roberto Ardigò (1828-1920), Spencer conducted no scientific research himself. Instead, he drew on the work of earlier educational theorists, including Pestalozzi, Rousseau (even though he refused to read Emile), Locke, Hume and others as far back as Aristotle. Although she criticized "speculative positivism", the young Montessori did not share Croce's antipathy to positivism in general. Enrico Morselli (1852-1929), who Montessori admired, was a leading exponent of positivism in Italy. So were three of Montessori's professors at the University of Rome: Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909, founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology), Achille de Giovanni (1838-1916), and Giuseppe Sergi (1831-1936). All three became important supporters of her work (Kramer & Freud, 1988). "By following the path of observation, we reach a goal analogous to that sought along the path of intuition." (Montessori, 1913, p. 476). Misconceptions about PostivismPhillips and Burbules list four common misconceptions about positivism:
(Phillips & Burbules, 2000, pp. 13-14) |
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